Metro Radio DJ Wayne Tunnicliffe was bullied for 10 years by yobs who made his life hell.

He made the revelations to the Chronicle as part of Anti-Bullying Week.

Speaking for the first time about his ordeal, the 31-year-old said: "I suppose it all really started in primary school.

"I was taunted in the playground. I suffered from asthma and eczema so they'd make fun of me, laughing at my illness.

"During the summer, the other kids thought it would be funny to throw grass at me because I had hay fever.

"By the time I got to secondary school, I was known as the geeky kid. They used to call me `square' because I didn't wear the best clothes.

"My family didn't have much money and I always felt self-conscious about what I wore."

Wayne confesses that he was so desperate to fit in, he considered stealing trainers so the bullies wouldn't laugh at his own.

"In the end, I borrowed some from a friend, but then I got laughed at for wearing them. They stamped all over my feet.

"Every part of my life started to become affected by what was happening.

"In the changing rooms at the swimming baths, a group of them would steal my clothes."

By the time he was 14, Wayne says he felt completely alone and starting taking desperate measures to win friends.

"I was doing everything I could to make these bullies like me. I started getting into trouble, getting a bad reputation in class and was always being told off.

"I failed all my exams and was seen as a troublemaker, while all the time I was being beaten up and called names.

"They would sit on the bus and spit into my ears. I would ask them why and they'd say it was fun."

Wayne left school at 16 and started a college apprenticeship as an electrician - but his troubles were far from over.

He said: "I knew I wanted to be a DJ, so I was working in my spare time at the local nightclub.

"Some of the other apprentices would go to the club and thought it would be fun to start picking on me.

"In the canteen, they'd splash hot tea in my face. In the morning, I would come in and my locker would have been welded shut. They'd even put cream in my shoes.

"I would go home crying, wondering why this was happening to me

"Feeling ill, frightened and confused, I began skipping college and was asked to leave."

It was then, aged 20, that Wayne's life turned around.

Now the proud father of a nine-year-old son, he said: "I can never forget what happened to me. But now I want others to know that you do come out the other side of it, that you can achieve what you want and be free of torment."